Convoy Attacks Up, U.S. Says

The number of roadside bombings targeting U.S. military supply convoys in Iraq has doubled in the last year, the general in charge of logistics for American forces in Iraq said Friday.

Army Brig. Gen. Yves Fontaine, commander of the 1st Corps Support Command, said U.S. military convoys carrying fuel, food, water, arms and equipment faced an average of 30 attacks weekly involving roadside bombs.

Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon from a U.S. base at Balad, north of Baghdad, Fontaine said U.S. casualties from the attacks have declined, however, thanks to increased vehicle armor.

“Because we’ve up-armored our vehicles, the casualties have decreased significantly, even though the ... attacks have increased significantly,” he said.

He did not provide casualty numbers.

Fontaine said the attacks on convoys are concentrated in the so-called Sunni Triangle north and west of the capital.

In continuing violence around the country, a blast Friday near a mosque west of Baghdad killed four people and wounded at least 19, police and hospital officials said.

Iraqis blamed U.S. forces, but an American spokesman disputed the claim.

The attack occurred on the outskirts of the town of Nasaf, near Ramadi, said police Lt. Mohammed Obeidi and Dr. Mohammed Ani of Ramadi General Hospital.

A hospital official, Ali Taleb, said a U.S. armored vehicle fired near the Ibn Jawzi Mosque, about 15 miles east of Ramadi, after worshipers left the building following Friday prayers.

Marine Capt. Jeffrey Pool, a military spokesman, disputed the account. Pool said two roadside bombs exploded near a U.S. convoy in the Ramadi area. Five gunmen and a civilian driver were killed in the subsequent exchange of fire, Pool said.

He said the incident occurred in a rural area with “no towns or mosques for miles.”

Taleb said 14 of the 19 people wounded in the blast were children.

Sufiyan Dulaimi, a 32-year-old resident of Nasaf, said he saw a U.S. armored vehicle about half a mile away fire and hit a wall of the mosque.

In the northern city of Mosul, gunmen killed at least three civilians and wounded two in an attack on a fuel tanker, police said.

Iraqi troops in Mosul killed three insurgents who were trying to break into a polling station to be used for the constitutional referendum, police Col. Khourshid Zibari said. One insurgent reportedly was wearing a belt loaded with explosives.

South of Kirkuk, two roadside bombs killed one police officer and a taxi driver, police Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qader said. Five other people were wounded.